BKC potholes fixed just in time for Anna

Though MMRDA claims it is 'not giving special treatment to anyone' by suddenly evening out the bumpy road to its BKC grounds, popular opinion and timing of the repair regimen say something else

Though MMRDA claims it is 'not giving special treatment to anyone' by suddenly evening out the bumpy road to its BKC grounds, popular opinion and timing of the repair regimen say something else

Even though the UPA-led Congress government is pitted against Anna Hazare in the public eye, Congress-led Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) seems to be giving him a red-carpet treatment (barring the drama surrounding the rent of the activist's fast venue).

The Anna effect? The authority has hurriedly started repairing potholes on the road leading to the MMRDA grounds in BKC, where Hazare starts his 3-day protest fast today. Pic/Sayed Sameer Abedi

The authority has hurriedly started repairing potholes on the road leading to the MMRDA grounds in BKC, where Hazare starts his 3-day protest fast today. But officials said it has nothing to do with the event.

Hazare and other important members of his team will be using a small internal road that goes to G-Text block where the event is taking place. The same road was in a bad condition for a long time and the MMRDA, responsible for maintaining some of the roads in BKC, had not bothered to fix it until now.

Last afternoon, MiD DAY visited the area around the ground and saw that the authority had started resurfacing the ditches-ridden road that leads to the venue. It has begun work on the 800-m stretch to make the bumpy road smooth.

Asked why the authority had started the resurfacing of the road a day ahead of Anna's programme, an MMRDA official said, "The decision to repair the road was taken long back. We just started the work today and it will be completed today itself. It will be wrong to say that we are giving special treatment to anyone."

Regular visitors to the area, requesting anonymity, said that it was apparent the repairs were being done because of Hazare's protest.